Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an umbrella, and more particularly to an oblong umbrella which has a hood adapted to be extended oppositely so as to shield several people and which is folded and extended in a bellows manner for convenient handling and storage.
In this specification, an umbrella according to the invention is not necessarily limited to an usual umbrella and can be also applicable to a parasol and a beach umbrella. Hence, umbrellas of the above kinds will be referred generically as a term "umbrella" for convenience hereinafter with the exception of particular case.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a conventional umbrella. As shown in the drawing, the umbrella comprises a main central shaft 100, a plurality of main links 101 pivotally secured to an upper end of the main shaft 100 at inner ends thereof, a plurality of stretcher links 102 pivotally secured to a middle portions of the main links 101 and a cloth or a hood 103 secured on the main links 101.
When the umbrella is extended, the cloth 103 has a round shape in plane and the central shaft 100 is projected vertically relative to the cloth 103 so that the umbrella can serve to shield only one person.
However, since the central shaft 100 is located at a center of the cloth 103, a user is easily soaked at his shoulder and arm portions during working in a storm weather. Also, in case of a beach umbrella, user is easy to be exposed to direct rays of the sun.
In order to overcome the above-mentioned problems, when the umbrella is enlarged in its cloth, it is difficult for the links and the associated components are difficult to support the cloth so that the umbrella is limited in its size.